Retirement [flash 172]

It was a myth that you’d miss working 6 months after retirement. Marty had heard all the jokes as he’d opted to get out early, and here he was… sleeping half the day away, with his most important decision being should he make pancakes or waffles for brunch?

He rubbed his hands together with glee as he started the coffeemaker. Mmm French roast. So delicious! He did not miss the crap brew they’d had back at work, nor the intrigue and gossip among his backbiting colleagues.

Sure, it got lonely at times, but Marty had resilience. He’d signed up for a macrame class at the community center and Linda next door had invited him to join her bird watching club. Fun!

He sure was not going to miss the screams and howls of his old job, the crying, the punching, the spitting, the stabbing, the tranquilizer darts, the shock collars…

Nope, Marty was not gonna miss teaching in that third grade classroom one bit!

Besides, his neck was still a little sore.

~*~

Written for Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge 54.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Indianapolis

Happy February! I’m participating in Bee’s fun music challenge again and hope you’ll join in (you don’t have to play every day).

Today’s theme is a love song containing a location. Apparently that was my brilliant idea… and then I had trouble thinking of one. 🙄 But happily I remembered “Little Green Apples” with Indianapolis in it! I did not realize there were so many great covers… well, I like O.C. Smith’s. His voice sounds super sincere and loving. ❤️

~*~

Written for Love Is In Da Blog Day 24.

Image credit to Happy Color.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Monday Peeve 24

Smiles and positive posts are all well and good, but sometimes I need to vent a bit. How about you? That’s what The Monday Peeve is all about, a chance to blow off a little steam at the beginning of the week, so then we can go merrily on our way once again (hah). I’ll pick a topic that’s on my mind, but you can vent about whatever you please, here in comments or on your own blog. Grab the photo, use the #TMP tag, and link back to me (or not ~ I dgaf), and Bob’s yer uncle. I do reserve the right to delete any links that offend my delicate sensibilities. So far, none have, but it could happen! I have feelings!

*

VIDEOS ARGGHHHH! I don’t want to watch videos about every damn thing! When I look up a song on YouTube, that’s when I like to see a video… but for everything else? Write it in words. I don’t want to listen to some idiot yapping about how to download a form or get published or make chocolate cinnamon candy. Just write it the eff down! I hate listening to people talk! It makes me so angry when I think I’m going to read an interesting article and the dreaded red button pops up.

Look at how we have a text-based medium here with lovely letters appearing on the screen. Let’s keep it that way!

PS: After I scheduled this post, my bank sent me a video to watch about how I can save more money next year. How about I spend the time working that I would have watched their stupid video?!?

~*~

Image originally from Pixabay.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

One Summer Never Ends

Happy February! I’m participating in Bee’s fun music challenge again and hope you’ll join in (you don’t have to play every day).

Today’s theme is a love song in summer. I’ve always loved “Suddenly Last Summer” by the Motels (also a movie with Elizabeth Taylor), but it took on new significance in 2016. I haven’t written much about that on here; even now it’s not only still incredibly painful, but also I write and write and yet the things I meant to say somehow have eluded me. Very strange. I have written a lot of oblique poetry about the situation, which works better. Pure emotion, less concrete explanation.

But I have a couple things in draft. Puzzle pieces to help me glue my mind together a little more securely. For now, here’s this…

~*~

Written for Love Is In Da Blog Day 23.

Image credit to Happy Color.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

SLS ~ Fingers & Toes

Jim Adams hosts our wonderful Song Lyric Sunday and today he gave us a variety of words to use for a prompt. I chose “Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose” by Tony Orlando & Dawn, which has two of the prompt words ~ fingers and toes ~ in it.

SGR was written by Irwin Levine and L. Russell Brown for Dawn’s New Ragtime Follies, their 1973 album. The song became the group’s 4th top ten single on Billboard’s Hot 100, peaking at #3.

Sweet Gypsy Rose

We were very happy
Well at least I thought we were
Can’t somebody tell me
What’s got into her
A house, a home, a family
And a man who loves her so
Who’d believe she’d leave us
To join a burlesque show?
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet Gypsy Rose?
Here’s her picture when she was my
Sweet Mary Jo
Now she’s got rings on her fingers
And bells on her toes
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet gypsy Rose?
Oh, I know when Mary Jo’s been dancin’
Here in New Orleans
In this smoke-filled honky-tonk
They call the land of dreams
Whoah, here she comes a-struttin’
In her birthday clothes
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet gypsy Rose?
Whoah, baby, baby,
Won’tcha come home
Say, we all miss ya
And every night we kiss your picture
Whoiah Rose, one night the lights go dim,
And the crowd goes home
That’s the day you wake up
And you find you’re all alone
So let’s say goodbye to Gypsy
Hello Mary Jo
Say has anybody seen my
Sweet Gypsy Rose
So take those rings off your fingers
And bells off your toes
Say has anybody seen my
Now you know just what I mean by
Has anybody seen my Sweet Gypsy Rose

~*~

Image credit to Jim Adams.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

With Nets Of Wonder

Happy February! I’m participating in Bee’s fun music challenge again and hope you’ll join in (you don’t have to play every day).

Today’s theme is a love song from when we started school ~ I assume kindergarten. For me, this was 1966 and there were a ton of love songs around. I’m choosing a sweet fave by Bob Lind: “Bright Elusive Butterfly of Love.” 🦋

I guess it could be viewed a bit stalkerish by today’s standards, just like “Every Breath You Take,” and lots of romcoms too. What’s up with Harry leaving all those messages on Sally’s answering machine anyway? She told him to get lost!

~*~

Written for Love Is In Da Blog Day 22.

Image credit to Happy Color.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Silent Siren

The silent siren sits alone, her seductive song long lost to the ravages of time and salt.

Yet the one she waits for hears the melody of her aching heart and sails toward those jagged rocks.

He arrives under a storm-bruised sky, the sea swirling in confusion, only to find the dream he followed was a dark illusion.

~*~

Written for Three Line Tales 212

~*~

Image credit to Unsplash.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Animal Sounds [socs]

I don’t know why but this animal sounds prompt makes all sorts of morbid thoughts run through my mind. I’m going with my first idea… which is wondering how many people’s last sound to process was that of an animal?

“Watch where you step out here. What was that rattle… ow!”

“It wasn’t my imagination, honey! I don’t care what your guide book says. I definitely heard something growl.”

“Eek, those things are noisy, but they don’t bother humans, right?”

~*~

Image credits to Shelley Krupa and Pexels.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

You Don’t Know How It Feels

Every heartbreak

Floats in its own universe of pain.

People thought I couldn’t,

I shouldn’t,

Hurt as much as I did,

But feelings don’t follow

A spreadsheet of rules.

Now that I know,

I never assume

What anyone else feels

Or how long it might take

Their heart to heal.

[Please note that the song I’ve chosen to go with my poem is about the emotional content, not necessarily the accuracy of the words themselves.]

~*~

Written for Jim’s MM’s Challenge.

Image credit to Mindlovemisery Menagerie.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Why Do You…

Happy February! I’m participating in Bee’s fun music challenge again and hope you’ll join in (you don’t have to play every day).

Today’s theme is a love song with flowers and I’m sharing one of my old faves. While the tempo is upbeat, the message is rather frustrating, with one person putting all the effort into the relationship and the other one acting selfishly. Isn’t that so often the way though? You always hope that things will change if you just keep trying…

~*~

Written for Love Is In Da Blog Day 21.

Image credit to Happy Color.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.